Friday, January 30, 2015

I am not superstitious and I've never found four-leaf clover or rabbit's feet to have any benefit. But I do know many intelligent, aware people who sail the way we do who refuse to leave on a passage on a Friday, the old sailor's superstition that goes along with prohibiting bananas or whistling on board. The same superstition also bans women from ships and yet I know women sailors who won't leave port on a Friday. We left Ban Thap Lamu in Thailand yesterday, a Friday, full of excitement to have a 1,000+ blue water passage ahead of us, with a good forecast issued by nearly a dozen different weathermen.

But it seemed like Thailand wasn't quite ready to let go of us.

Things started to go wrong almost immediately. As I was pulling up the anchor, the windlass was laboring much more than usual and I soon found out why: A huge tree stump had gotten caught on our anchor chain and I had no idea how to free it. That problem was temporarily exempted when the chain filling the anchor locker got too high, jamming the chain into the wild cat. After fumbling for the right sized Allen wrench, I was able to get the windlass apart, clear the jam and concentrate on getting the tree stump removed. Something smiled on me though and the anchor came up clean, the tree stump having left of its own accord. We were finally underway.

It is a tradition in Thailand that when a boat has completed a big repair or is departing on a major journey, to light off a string of firecrackers. Not wanting to miss an opportunity to light off 1,000 firecrackers, I had bought the 2-meter long string, all coiled up in its bright red box with the Chinese dragons. Dangling the string of firecrackers from our boathook, I lit the fuse and quickly swung them over the side. Unfortunately, the quality control is lacking where those firecrackers were assembled - someone missed tying a critical knot - and the whole string dropped unceremoniously into the water. A few of the firecrackers went off anyway but just a small fraction of the total. I don't know if we were able to scare away the evil spirits or please the gods with our puny display but it doesn't matter because I'm not superstitious.

We motored out of the bay and before we raised the main, I needed to thread a new 3rd reef line for our new mainsail, the old one being too short by just a few centimeters. Mark and I fished the line through the boom, tied it off and I went to raise the sail - only to find that the new reef line was too short also. I said many bad words. But that wasn't all. After the new main was fully hoisted, Mark noticed that the luff was too slack. He was right and I went back to add some tension to the halyard but the halyard was already tight. Looking up at the top of the mast with binoculars, we could see that the main was all the way to the top - in fact, the thimble on the end was already up against the sheave, leaving us no way to get it any tighter. Having a main with a loose luff before you begin a 1,000 mile journey is like leaving San Diego for Denver knowing that your tires are under inflated.

Regardless, the day was beautiful and the seas were absolutely flat - flat because there was no wind. We motored until the late afternoon and on one of my forays down below, I stepped on the floorboard that covers our refrigeration compressors. The sole was hot. With a sigh, I lifted up the floorboard, felt the condensor coils and confirmed what I had suspected - no raw water circulation. I dove head first into the task of cleaning out the sea strainer and mopping up the bilge, not one of my favorite chores, especially while underway.

Not was all bad, though, towards late afternoon, a light wind filled in, we cut the engine and soon had every sail flying except the bed sheets. We were making good time towards our first waypoint, just south of the Nicobar Islands, where we'll veer to the right and head for Sri Lanka. All is well on board.
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At 1/24/2015 3:06 AM (utc) Rutea's position was 07°36.17'N 096°05.37'E

Monday, January 26, 2015

We made some excellent time yesterday, covering 182 nautical miles in a 24-hour period, almost a new record for Rutea. Now we have slightly more than 400nm to go to our destination and the conditions remain very good. The whitecaps spangle the sapphire-blue sea in the bright sunlight.

Our watch schedule last night was normal with no incidents to log until Mark came on watch at 0300 and a line of squalls formed right in our path. None of them were huge and (thankfully) none of them had any lightning. From my cabin, I could tell that the wind was rising so I came up on deck to offer Mark my support. Once the wind hit 25 knots, we decided to reef the genoa and as the squall increased, we furled it altogether, just leaving the staysail and the main with a single reef up. Rain poured down - which was a good thing because after four days at sea, Rutea needed a good fresh water bath. After the squall passed we unfurled the genoa and I was just about to go back to my bunk when I noticed another squall forming on the radar. This one proved just as strong as the previous one and once again we furled the genoa altogether until the squall passed. I was able to get a few minutes more sleep until it was my watch and since we've made so much westing in the last four days, the sunrise wasn't going to happen until nearly 0700, local time, as I haven't set our clocks back. While still screaming along at 8 knots, Rutea was rolled badly by a breaking whitecap and our pantry door latch couldn't hold back all the wine, milk, eggs and onions so it all spilled on the main saloon's sole. One bottle of Ruthie's Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio broke, making the cabin smell like a winery, half-a-dozen eggs broke and one of the pantry's bins had hit our newly-varnish table, taking out a good-sized bite of varnish.

Once I had the big chunks cleaned up, it was way past time for coffee. I ground the Thai beans, boiled water and as I was waiting for the water to cool slightly, I stuck my head out the hatch to give a quick 360°. Bad decision. While I was looking around, Rutea took another bad roll and spilled all the coffee grounds. A long stream of bad words came from somewhere. I saved most of the grounds in a large plastic tumbler and as I was dumping them back into the coffee cone, I smacked the bottom of the tumbler, sending it crashing into the coffee cone and spilling all the grounds once again.

Ruthie did most of the clean up when she got up. My mood is now quite good and Rutea continues to make good time. All is well on board.
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At 1/27/2015 3:10 AM (utc) Rutea's position was 07°30.30'N 087°57.00'E

If I had a dollar for every time I've tucked a reef in our mainsail, I wouldn't be rich but I would have a lot of dollars. The reef I had to tuck in this morning at 0300 was routine in every way with the exception of it being the first time I had tucked a reef in this particular sail. The longer kringles and the loose-foot created new issues that I hadn't dealt with before and it makes for an interesting learning curve when you're trying to perform a new task on a pitching deck. With our old main I could tuck a reef in (or shake one out) in less than a few minutes. I didn't time myself this morning but it was an exponential factor.

The wind has been very steady at 16-18 knots and the seas are less than 2 meters - nearly ideal conditions. The overcast skies help to keep it cooler but deny our solar panels the energy they need. Embarrassingly, our genset run time is stratospheric.

We are not quite to our halfway mark for this passage but we'll reach it later today. If the wind holds up - and we expect it will - we should pull into Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, sometime late Thursday.

All is well on board.
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At 1/26/2015 1:18 AM (utc) Rutea's position was 06°58.90'N 091°04.18'E

Friday, January 16, 2015

After living in Thailand for nearly a year, our
departure from this unique country is imminent.While we are eager to leave,we
will never forget the kindness shown to us by so many people, the spectacular
beauty of the places we’ve seen or the incredible flavors of the local
foods.Obviously, the country has many
issues with which it struggles – what country doesn’t? – but despite the fact
that while we were here we witnessed a military coup, routinely saw people driving
the wrong direction of traffic and continuously had to deal with poor repairs,
people not showing up when they said they were or places of business randomly
closing for no apparent reason.The heat
frequently sapped all of our energy and motivation leaving us ‘hibernating’
directly under a small window air conditioner.On the other hand, we took advantage of the marina’s fitness room – it
was air conditioned – and both of us got in better physical shape than we
possibly ever had been.

Ruthie and Phen

There were a few restaurants near the marina where we parked
Rutea and one of them quickly became
our favorite.It’s owned by a small Thai
woman named Phen (pronounced ‘Pen’) and the name of the place is Coconut.Phen does everything:She takes your order, cooks the food, serves
it and washes the dishes.Her English is
very good yet she always speaks in the third-person:“Phen no have.” or “Phen can make.”There are several long tables in this
restaurant with no walls and cruisers from all over the world sit shoulder to
shoulder, exchanging stories, offering experiences or talking of future
destinations while enjoying very cold Thai beer.The menu is extensive but, even so, Phen does
her shopping daily so the food is always remarkably fresh.Her Penang Curry has the bright, strong
flavors of kaffir lime leaves, garlic, bird’s eye chilis, bunches of green
peppercorns still on the stem plus a long list of spices.It’s one of our favorites and Phen will make
it with chicken, pork or beef but if you’re lucky and she has fresh prawns,
then that’s what we order.A large
serving of that with a big bowl of steamed rice will set you back 150 Thai Baht
(almost US$5.00) but it’s one of the most expensive items on the menu.

There are many things in Thailand that have made us
giggle.For example, one time when we were shopping at
one of the big department stores in a mega-shopping mall, I paid for some items
with a credit card.Many years ago I
read that it is unwise to actually sign the back of your credit card – if you
do and your credit card get stolen, the thief has your signature as well.Because of that, I print on the signature
line: Demand Photo ID.The
clerk at this particular store compared my signature on the paper receipt to
the back of my card and said, “No same.”I got my California
driver’s license out and showed her that the signature on my license and the
slip were in fact identical.She held
her ground and repeated that the writing on the back of the credit card didn’t
match what I had signed.She handed the
slip back to me and I printed below my signature:Demand Photo ID and with this she
was satisfied.It took great amounts of
physical and emotional strength not to burst out laughing.

Today, for the first time in a year, we’ve sailed to a port
which we haven’t visited before.My brother,
Mark, is on board with us and we’re having a great time even if there are
chores and repairs to be made.While
Mark was here, our single-cylinder diesel genset blew out an exhaust
elbow.Mark mentioned this in an email
to a mutual friend, saying that I was struggling with genset issues.Unfortunately, AutoCorrect changed ‘genset’
to ‘gender’.

About Rutea

Rutea was built in 1984 by Conyplex in Mendemblik, Holland. A small brass plaque says that she's hull Number 9 but on the Conyplex website www.contestyachts.com there's no mention of them building that many. She's designed by Dick Zaal, who designed most of Conyplex's earlier boats. The brochure says that she's 48' overall with a 14'6" beam and she draws 6'. Her cast iron bolted-on fin keel weighs 12,000 pounds and she is supposed to displace slightly over 37,000 pounds but she's never been one to watch her weight and, ahem, she's gained more than a few pounds since we bought her in 1996. Her ketch rig sports Profurl furlers for the jib/genoa and the staysail. The main has a very tall aspect as does the mizzen. All of her winches are made by Enkes although I did add a Harken self-tailing for the main halyard. She uses an unusual reel winch that's equipped with Spectra rope for furling the genoa. There's a running backstay on the mizzen mast and there are no forward lowers on the main mast. The head stay is Dyform.

I replaced the original Volvo MD40A six-cylinder diesel with a Beta Marine 90 and I've been very happy with it although it puts out nowhere near 90 HP - probably 70 is more like it. Regardless, it's adequate and very economical on fuel. I also replaced the original Westerbeke 6kw genset with a single-cylinder Kubota diesel that drives a 150-amp alternator. Since we switched over to 12-volt refrigeration, we no longer have any 110-volt appliances on board, other than the water heater. Since the new Beta Marine engine has two big alternators (one is 100 amps and the other 175), we have our Victron inverter/charger power the water heater when we're under power (we don't have engine coolant circulate through the water heater).

Rutea's layout down below is different from many boats of her size. Aft of her water-tight forward bulkhead is a 'wet' head, complete with two sinks. Aft of that are two cabins, both with bunk beds on either side of the boat and each has a door to the forward head. This was perfect when we cruised with our family as our 3 children had their own quarters. The main saloon occupies the area aft of the forward cabins and her dinette and settees are large enough to seat 10 people (we've had many a memorable meal here!). Under the cabin sole are two 90-gallon stainless steel fuel tanks. Under the settee seats on either side is a 120-gallon water tank, also made of stainless steel. On the starboard side, aft of the dinette is the foward-facing nav station and on the port side is the galley where we have a 7 cubic foot refrigerator and a 5 cubic foot freezer. Aft of the nav station, on the starboard side is my work shop. This was originally designed to be another stateroom but the original owner had Conyplex convert it into a work shop, complete with a heavy-duty work bench and a massive 6" vise. I sometimes spend days at a time in there. Many a visiting cruiser has eyed with envy, drooled with desire and blatantly coveted my work shop! I have access to the engines from there. On the port side, aft of the galley, is another 'wet' head. Aft of that is the aft cabin, which has a settee as well as a full double-size berth. Aft of the aft cabin or 'owner's stateroom' as it's called on many boats, is her spacious lazarette, which is where the water heater and diesel-fired boiler are located. Bolted to the back of the aft deck and overhanging the transom are her Simpson davits (I sometimes tell people that the boat was built around those davits - they're very substantial with a capacity of 250 Kgs). Resting on top of the davits are Ruthie's roto-molded kayak and above that are two 215-watt solar panels. Hanging off the davits is our Aqua Pro dinghy and it's 15-horsepower Honda outboard.

On deck, starting at the bow, is Rutea's primary anchor, a Bruce 30 kilogram that's connected to the 350' of 3/8" Hi-Test chain with a Wasi Powerball. The anchor and chain are deployed and retrieved by a Lofrans Progress II windlass. In the anchor locker lives another Bruce 20kg anchor that's connected to 50' of 3/8" Hi-Test chain and 150' of 1" MegaBraid rope. Also in the anchor locker, amongst many other things, is the 18' Para-Tech sea anchor with it's dedicated 100' of 1" single-braid rope. Moving aft is Rutea's main mast, which has double spreaders, four Enkes winches and one Harken self-tailing winch. The mast is made by Selden as are the two heavy spinnaker poles. The tracks for the staysail and the genoa are stainless steel. In the cockpit are five more Enke winches and a Harken mechanical backstay adjuster. The mizzen mast is also quite substantial and has three Enkes winches on it. The turning blocks are stainless steel. The steering system on Rutea is the Whitlock Mamba system using a torque tube and a push-pull rod. The compass in the binnacle is made by Sestrel.

Even though we try to keep up on Rutea's appearance, she's still starting to show her age. I replaced her portlights (all twelve of them) and Ruthie has taken over the job of varnishing her brightwork. In 2000 we removed her teak decks and replaced it with painted fiberglass. Much less maintenance! She's what I call a 200-foot boat: She looks great from 200 feet!

Regardless, the best part of Rutea is the way she handles. While she's not the fastest filly in the fleet, she can cover a respectable amount of distance in a day. Her sail plan allows her to be easily balanced to the point where the autopilot has very little correcting to do. Her sails are all made by North except her spinnakers are Dutch-made.

Rutea’s electronics package includes radar, chartplotter, AIS, sounder and sailing instruments - all made by Garmin. Her radios are all old but they work well. Her Icom M802 SSB has been modified to use ham frequencies.